Elizabeth of Spalbeek
Elizabeth of Spalbeek was already a well-known if controversial visionary by 1276. In that year a prophecy was attributed to her in which she claimed that God was angry with King Philip III because of the king’s sins against nature. The papal legate Simon of Brie verified that he had heard a similar rumor. In the course of four separate missions to question Elizabeth, the party of Pierre de La Broce and Bishop Pierre de Benais also attributed to her the prophetic claim that Queen Marie of Brabant had poisoned her stepson, the heir to the throne. In the end Elizabeth relied on staunch denial, and chose to silence her own prophetic voice to avoid censure.